Dini'la Aruetiise
by aragornwen
Summary: Jus takes a job and brings Rana for backup.


"You're insane."

"No, _cyar'ika_, that would be you." His grin was audible from behind the T-shaped visor of his helmet. "Bucket on, Ran'ika."

Rana, scowling, replaced her tawny gold helmet and surveyed the small opening with great dislike. "What if it narrows father in? We'll have to crawl out backwards, and we don't have that much time to waste."

Jus shook his head. "I did a full recon with the remote, and it's all clear." A twisting array of blue and red lines filled her vision as he patched a link through to her HUD. "See? Complete plans. Trust me." She nodded grudgingly. "You really don't like enclosed spaces, do you?" he asked, amusement evident in his tone.

"Not particularly, no," she answered stiffly. "There's not enough room to swing a dead womp rat in there."

Jus chuckled. "Luckily, there's plenty of room for Kyram'ika. I'd think that it's more useful in this situation than a dead womp rat anyway."

She ran a gloved hand over her modified Verp's stock. "There better be room. I'm not leaving it out here."

"Of course not." Jus knelt and peered into the pipe. "I'll go first then."

"You do that," Rana muttered, wishing he could go alone, but knowing he couldn't, and that she'd hate herself for not watching his back even if he could. She watched him disappear into the darkness, then followed him, carefully keeping from jostling Kyram'ika against the rough wall as she switched her visuals to low light mode. "Remind me why we can't just blow this dump into Hutt space…"

"Because _P for plenty_ isn't always the answer, especially when the contract specifies that the target is to be taken alive," he answered.

"Details," she muttered, but fell silent. She was glad for the monochromatic view through her visor; it lent an air of unreality to her surroundings and kept her from thinking too hard about where she actually was. She ducked to avoid knocking her head on a spigot and decided not to think about what might be in the pipes lining the walls of the narrow crawl space either. Instead, she focused on the back of Jus's belt. His _kama_ was a slightly unsettling greenish gray instead of its actual dull orange, but she concentrated on merely moving forward a bit at a time. She had completely lost track of how far they had come when she nearly ran into Jus, who had halted suddenly.

"Ssh!" he hissed, although their helmets blocked all sound from escaping.

"I didn't say anything!" she whispered fiercely back, but he ignored her, pulling a small tool from his belt and fiddling with something she couldn't see. A rectangular opening appeared in the wall, outlined by a thin beam of dim yellow light. He slipped a small remote through it, and the empty room, apparently dedicated to a collection of tall transparisteel cases, showed up in a corner of Rana's HUD. She squinted at them, trying to see what might be inside, but before she could make anything out, he retracted it and the footage went off.

"Follow me," he muttered, and opened the hatch. They came out onto polished stone tiles bordering an area of plush red carpeting, and Rana glanced around curiously.

"It's a _talyc_ museum," she breathed, gazing into the cases. "Just look at that necklace. That's a corusca gem or I'm a bantha."

Jus grunted disinterestedly, engaged in patching a false signal into the security cams. "Didn't know you liked jewelry that much."

Rana snorted. "I don't, but can you imagine what that might be worth?"

He sighed. "We're here to get the target out alive, not to engage in petty theft."

"_Petty_ theft? This thing's a million creds at least!"

He finished with the cam and paused by the shut door. "I'm not going to argue with you, but if you want to deal with fencing stolen goods…"

Rana shrugged. "Don't hurt my feelings. Not like the owner's gonna be missing it now."

He shook his head. "You do what you want, but the reason we came out in here is because her office is immediately through that door, not to go shopping."

Rana had moved on to another case, and sucked in her breath audibly. "_Wayii_! Look at that shiny little toy." The blaster she was looking at was a tiny hold-out model, grip inlaid with some exotic blue wood and butt twinkling with tiny jewels.

"Ran'ika, we are not here to sightsee." His tone was slightly exasperated. "If you want it, grab it, but if you don't, shift your _kama_. The faster we get out of here, the better."

"Fine, fine," she muttered. "Probably only holds enough charge for one stunner round anyway… Borrow your cutter?" He rolled his eyes under the helmet and passed her the tool. "_Vor'e_." She made short work of the case's lock, shoving the little blaster and a few other items into a belt pouch, and then shut it again. "There. They'll never notice until it's too late."

"They'll have more important things to worry about," he grumbled. "Can we get on with it already?"

"Yes," she said, handing back his tool. "_Oya_."

"All right…" he murmured, half-distracted. "She's… hunting for a file… no, she found it. And locked the door." His tone was almost smug. "I love it when they make it that much easier."

Rana raised an eyebrow. "You sliced into the security cams?"

He shrugged. "I was already up to my elbows in them, fixing that false signal. Might as well. On three then. You get the door, I'll cover her."

She nodded, positioning herself by the control panel.

"One… two… three."

She opened the door, and he stepped in, leveling his BlasTech rifle at the slight strawberry blonde behind the desk. "Hands off the keyboard and over your head, sweetheart," he said lazily. "And don't even think about punching that alarm or trying to draw that pretty little blaster. Your contract specified alive, but if it's the creds or my skin, I know which one I'm picking. Either way, it won't be much fun for you…"

The curly-haired woman's clear gray eyes widened. "Who sent you?"

"You'll find out, won't you? Ran'ika, come show our lovely guest the latest fashion in wrist adornment and relieve her of that blaster. It's very much out of style."

Rana strode forward, slapping a pair of binders on the woman a bit rougher than was strictly necessary and shoving the little blaster pistol into her own belt.

The woman looked indignant. "Look, if you're working for Vr'ksh, I can tell you he's mistaken. That… misunderstanding over the Markah lot was just that. The terms were clearly set out in the contract. He just didn't read it closely enough-"

Jus's tone conveyed slight exasperation and boredom. "Look, lady, the only contract I know about is the one that said how many creds I get for delivering your sorry yet still breathing carcass back to Inkili. It just said _alive_. _Damage_ wasn't mentioned."

The woman opened her mouth slightly, then closed it. "Wise choice," Jus said lightly. "My compatriot here gets a little trigger-happy when people don't listen."

Rana chose that moment to prod the woman's back gently with one finger. She jumped, apparently not realizing Rana still hadn't drawn a blaster. "Now, follow us quietly and nobody gets hurt," he finished, motioning her forward with the blaster barrel. The blonde stepped reluctantly out from behind the desk, hands cuffed in front of her.

"Go first, Ran'ika," he said into their private comm. "I'll take rearguard."

"Right," she answered, and led the way back into the hatch. The woman behind her let out a noise of distaste.

"You're kidding. You're going to make me crawl through that?"

"You don't have to crawl, just bend over a little," Jus said amusedly. "We've got more to complain about than you, since both of us are taller."

The woman scowled and then jumped again as Jus prodded her back with the blaster. She reluctantly followed Rana into the crawlspace, yelping a little when she hit her head on the spout Rana had just dodged. "It's _dark_ in here," she complained.

"Sounds like a personal problem to me. Not my fault you don't have night vision…" Jus was enjoying himself greatly, all the more as it was at the woman's expense.

Before long, the light from their exit shone dimly ahead, and the woman let out a sigh of relief. "Is that all? We don't have very much longer to go, do we?"

Jus didn't even bother answering her. Rana led the way back into the treeline, where their tiny rented speeder was waiting. He opened the hatch with his remote and bowed ironically. "After you."

The woman drew herself up regally and nodded, settling herself in the back seat. "Thank you."

"My pleasure," he muttered, slipping behind the control yoke. Rana took the remaining seat beside him, popping the seal on her helmet. The woman's jaw slackened.

"A… female?"

"What, you think Mandos are all scruffy guys? Yeah, I'm a _female_."

The woman shook her head disbelievingly, strawberry blonde locks in disarray, then seemed to notice that Jus had taken off his helmet too. "Oh. Hello," she said, suddenly very interested.

He raised an ironic eyebrow. "Hi."

"I… don't believe we've been properly introduced," she purred. "I'm Hali Akara."

"I know your name, hon," he said shortly, pulling out onto the road. "It was on the contract."

"Well then, you have the advantage of me." She smiled smugly, eying Jus appreciatively. Rana glanced back, scowling, and reached down, but Jus caught her eye and mouthed _Let me handle it._ She slowly nodded acquiescence, not entirely pleased.

"Name's Jus, and this's Rana."

"A pleasure to meet you, and your… friend, too, I'm sure." The woman didn't sound entirely convincing, which Rana ascribed to Jus's inclusion of her in the introduction. "Ah… may I ask where exactly you are taking me?"

"Oh, you can ask all day long, but don't expect an answer."

The woman looked put out for a moment, but recovered smoothly. "_Do_ call me Hali. This _is_ about Vr'ksh, isn't it?"

Jus lifted an eyebrow again. "Yeah, since I make such a point of being on a first-name basis with all my targets…"

The woman blinked at the term _target_, then apparently decided on a new direction. "Um… that was a very… interesting gun you had pointed at me earlier. May I ask what kind it was?"

"BlasTech A280."

"I see. And of course it must be very difficult to operate…"

"Easy enough. Just point at whatever you want dead and pull the trigger."

Rana was getting impatient, but Jus winked at her. She rolled her eyes and fished the decorated hold-out blaster out of the belt pouch to study it while Jus played his little game.

"So…" the woman's gray eyes were at their widest and most innocuous. "Do you think _I_ could learn how to use it?"

"Bit heavy for you. I'd advise a lighter blaster. And probably, in your line of work, that little pistol you had would be the best."

"The one your friend seems to have taken from me?"

"Yeah, that one. Note my use of the past tense. The little pistol you _had_. We Mandalorians may be bloodthirsty mercenaries, but such subtle nuances of language aren't completely beyond us." Jus's tone was completely neutral, but Rana knew he must be laughing inwardly.

The woman looked taken aback at his sarcasm. "Of- of course," she stammered. "I meant no offense." She didn't seem to have realized that she hadn't actually said anything, and Rana immediately classed her as a useless idiot. "So… um… that armor. It looks so heavy. It must be a terrible pain to get out of…" She trailed off, smiling alluringly. Rana decided to take matters into her own hands before the _utreekov_ made another not-so-subtle pass at Jus, and held the jeweled hold-out blaster up. She swiped an oiled rag over the blued barrel, catching the woman's attention by the sudden motion.

"So, _cyar'ika_," Rana asked casually in _Mando'a_, "how much d'you reckon we could get for this?"

Jus glanced over, but the woman spoke first, sounding outraged. "Where did you get that?"

"Where do you think, sister?" Rana smirked, her Basic heavy with a Keldabe accent. "And paws off, by the way. He's mine."

The woman scowled. "Why you- you wretched little mercenary _thug!_"

Rana tilted the pistol so that the gems in the butt shimmered. "Here's a credit. Call someone who cares."

"That is a valuable antique! You don't have the least idea what it is worth or how to care for it-"

Rana shrugged, enjoying herself immensely. The woman's cheekbones were quite pink by now. "It's a blaster. It's a pretty little thing too." She tossed it up and caught it carelessly. "Glad I nicked it. Make a nice wedding gift for my cousin and his wife."

The woman's mouth worked silently, her face the picture of indignation. "All right, ladies, I hate to break up your witty repartee, but this is Mistress Akara's stop," Jus said, sounding completely bored. "Ran'ika, you can stay in the speeder and admire your new toy while I collect the creds."

"Whatever you say, _cyar'ika_," Rana answered, smirking at the woman. "Pleasure to meet you and your friend, I'm sure." She held the blaster up, letting the sun play over the engraving on the barrel. Jus hauled the woman out of the speeder and toward the back entrance to the office block, cutting off any reply she might have made.

Jus slid back into the speeder. "A wedding gift? Honestly, Rana, they've been married over a year now. Was that really the best thing you could think of?"

Rana sniffed, testing the jeweled safety switch. "She didn't know that… Anniversary present, then. Zas'ika will like it. She likes blue."

Jus rolled his eyes. "Your day isn't complete until you've won at least one fight, is it?"

Rana looked up, attempting to look innocent. "Fight? That wasn't a fight. I didn't shoot her, did I? I didn't even throw a punch."

Jus raised an eyebrow. "No, you didn't. I was surprised. Well done."

"Why, thank y- Hey!" She frowned at him. "I don't get in a fight with every stranger I meet!"

His laughter was the only reply.


End file.
